Sustainable Fisheries Archives

The European Commission has initiated infringement proceeding against seven EU members states for non-respect of bluefin tuna rules

The announcement follows last week’s Commission decision to close this fishery to conserve stocks. The Commission made public this morning that it has opened infringement proceedings against 7 EU countries for failing in their legal obligation to properly send bluefin tuna catch data. Cyprus, France, Greece, Italy, Malta, Portugal and Spain could eventually face severe … Read more

Carrefour is in favour of responsible fishing

Following meetings with Oceana, the Carrefour chain of hypermarkets has announced that they stopped selling bluefin tuna captured in the Mediterranean Sea from 1 August, in order to avoid the collapse of this fishery in the Mediterranean. The Carrefour Group is the first food distribution group in Spain to adopt precautionary measures geared towards promoting … Read more

Millions of tons of fish are thrown away at sea each year around the world

The discarded fish constitute 8% of the total weight of the world’s captures, or more than 7.3 million tons of fish that are thrown away at sea. Oceana affirms that this practice is most troubling in the European Union’s Atlantic fisheries. One out of every 6 kilos of fish captured in Europe never reaches the … Read more

Oceana believes the closed season for anchovy is too short

The poor state of the anchovy stock in the Cantabrian fishing grounds has once again obliged the European Commission to close them down for the second consecutive year. The aim is to try to alleviate the serious mistakes made by the French and Spanish governments which, despite opposition from scientists, allowed anchovy fishing to continue … Read more

Spain could be severely fined for selling immature fish

Fines levied against France for selling hake smaller than what is authorised add up to more than 100 million Euros The European Commission has pressed charges against the Spanish government before the European Union Courts of Justice, after seven years of continuously reporting on Spain´s non-compliance of European regulations concerning the catch, landing and sale … Read more

Hundreds of tons of swordfish caught illegally by Morocco are sold in Spain

Despite the fact that driftnets have been banned in the Mediterranean for many years, a fleet of Moroccan fishing vessels continues to use this destructive fishing gear in the Alboran Sea and the Straits of Gibraltar, setting nets up to 12 kilometres long. Oceana, the marine conservation organisation, estimates that this fleet is made up … Read more

Oceana states that 2007 quotas disregard once again scientific advice

Oceana, the international marine research and conservation organisation, believes that the high total allowable catches (TACs) and quotas for 2007 agreed at the Fisheries Council are disastrous, disregarding scientific advice and with scant regard for the long term conservation of fish stocks. Every year, EU Fisheries Ministers tend to agree quotas higher than those proposed … Read more

Oceana warns that many European Union fisheries are in danger of collapse unless catches are reduced

EU Fisheries Ministers will meet on December 19th and 20th to debate the 2007 fishing quotas for European fleets. Anchovy, cod, hake, megrim, Norwegian lobster and a long list of other marine species are overexploited and in serious decline, and EU fishing grounds are still showing a clear tendency toward collapse. Recent scientific assessments studies … Read more

The European Commission has proposed to reopen the wasterful deep-sea gillnet fishery of the Northeast Atlantic

The European Commission has proposed to reopen the Northeast Atlantic (NEAT) deep-sea gillnet fishery, which takes place in depths between 200 and 1200 meters in waters north and west of Great Britain and Ireland. This fishery was temporarily closed by the European Union Fisheries Ministers in December 2005 due to its incredible waste and the … Read more

International Tuna Commission calls for data, but not catch limits on imperiled species

The annual meeting of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) which ended last night, brought agreement to examine the status of Atlantic sharks, but no measures to protect these vulnerable species from overfishing. The lack of action by ICCAT leaves conservationists looking to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species … Read more